Eleven Companies Participate in 16GFC and FCoE FCIA Plugfest at
University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab

November 20, 2012 09:51 AM Eastern Time

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA), a non-profit
international organization of manufacturers, systems integrators and
vendors, today announced the completion of the third 16 Gb Fibre Channel
Plugfest and the ninth FCoE Plugfest, which was held during the week of
Oct. 8th, 2012 at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab
(UNH-IOL).

“FCIA is once again pleased and grateful to the University of New
Hampshire for helping the Fibre Channel SAN community ensure that the
latest Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet technology
innovations yield the best possible end-user experience as these
innovations come to market.”

Endorsed by the FCIA, this plugfest provided a forum where leading Fibre
Channel vendors came together to collaborate on their respective FCoE
and 16GFC products to ensure both interoperability and configurability
between vendors.

Some key test points at the plugfest were:

* Tested 16 GFC interoperability and backwards compatibility

* 16 GFC to 16 GFC

* 16 GFC to 8 GFC

* 16 GFC to 4 GFC

* 16 GFC to 10G FCoE

* Cable infrastructure

* Complex Infrastructures for FCoE including:

* Multiple FCFs

* Multiple DCB switches between Initiators and the FCF and between
Targets and the FCF

* High Availability including FCF fail over

“The Fibre Channel Industry Association and the University of New
Hampshire have conducted more than 35 plugfests over 15 years of testing
Fibre Channel technologies,” said Skip Jones, FCIA Chairman, QLogic.
“FCIA is once again pleased and grateful to the University of New
Hampshire for helping the Fibre Channel SAN community ensure that the
latest Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet technology
innovations yield the best possible end-user experience as these
innovations come to market.”

The eleven participating companies included:

Amphenol

Atto

Brocade

Cisco

DCS

Emulex

JDSU

HP

LeCroy

QLogic

SanBlaze

“As more products are released supporting 16 GFC and 10G FCoE, FCIA
sponsored plugfests continue to allow participants to validate
interoperability of FC and FCoE products including backward
compatibility of FC products at 4GFC and 8GCF to new 16GFC products.
With continued increases in speed including the upcoming 40G FCoE, this
interoperability and backward compatibility allows customers to grow
their storage infrastructure taking advantage of speed and functional
improvements while leveraging current investment,” said Bill Martin, FC
Plugfest Chair, Emulex.

About FCIA

The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a non-profit
international organization whose sole purpose is to act as the
independent technology and marketing voice of the Fibre Channel
industry. We are committed to helping member organizations promote and
position Fibre Channel, and to providing a focal point for Fibre Channel
information, standards advocacy, and education. FCIA members include
manufacturers, system integrators, developers, vendors, industry
professionals, and end users. Our member-led working groups and
committees focus on creating and championing the Fibre Channel
technology roadmaps, targeting applications that include data storage,
video, networking, and storage area network (SAN) management. For more
info, go to http://www.fibrechannel.org.

About the UNH-IOL

Established in 1988, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability
Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is a non-profit organization that offers
comprehensive interoperability and conformance-based testing through 19
technology-based groups, called consortiums. Test solutions created at
the UNH-IOL offer a set of methods to increase interoperability through
protocol operations, signaling, and point-to-point and multi-system
scenarios. For more information, visit the UNH-IOL website at: www.iol.unh.edu.

The UNH-IOL also runs the Fibre Channel Consortium, a separate
association of companies building new products and interested in testing
them on an ongoing basis.